determined that wireless must not be activate (???) as led is not lit - laptop is set to airplane mode by default this is supposedly turned off with Fn/F10 but cant tell - cant explain seeing neighbours wifi

laptop manual only lists wifi on/off via on-screen icon, which of course being a manufacturers app only works wit Win10 and has been wiped with MX install.

It almost seems as if your own router is set to not broadcast SSID, which could happen if tinkering about settings.

I don't know if airplane mode would stop passive identification of nearby emissions, although it certainly is intended to stop a device emitting any of its own, lest it cause a passenger jet to inadvertently eject septic contents over Toronto as the navigation lights pulse in time to some passenger's music track.